SWINE FLU NEWS.
Daffodil J. Altan over at the OC Weekly reports (
here)—or maybe just opines—that those surgical masks that everybody’s dying for are useless.
My sister Annie told me that she was at Home Depot yesterday and some lady was literally running through the building crying that she could find no surgical masks! “There’s a pandemic!” she yelped, said sis. Annie claimed to be standing right there where they keep those mask that workers wear when they’re, like, blowin’ leaves around and disturbing the peace. For some reason Annie didn’t clue the lady in about that.
So, anyway, Daffodil reports that
After essentially quarantining a CSULB student who has received a "probable positive test" (um, is it or isn't it?) for piggy flu, health officials on the Long Beach campus handed out surgical face masks to students on campus who have "been paranoid," according to a Press Telegram report.
That’s pretty funny, I guess. But don’t be surprised if, one day soon, you open your door and see a scene from
Invasion of the Body Snatchers. If people can vote for
George W. Bush twice, they can run amok looking for useless leaf-blower masks.
FIRE. Did you notice the fire at the IVC library a few days ago? Yeah, right there at the “grand entrance hall,” about twenty-five feet up and to the right, a light bulb in one of those ritzy Art Deco fixtures caught fire. I’m told that the first sign of trouble was a smell of melting or burning plastic. Sensing trouble, students started running out of the building—just like
Kevin McCarthy in, well,
Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Then that light bulb caught fire. Flames, smoke, screaming.
I guess they (whoever “they” were) took care of it
tout de suite. (Sorry, I meant
“lickety-split.” What was I thinkin’?) All you can see now is some black soot up and around the fixture.
A friend said, “Hey, what if this happened on the
weekend?” I said, “Yeah. The contractor must’ve bought some cheap econo-bulbs from China.”
“Yeah,” he said. We grunted unpleasantly.
ZODIAC. Did you hear about that OC woman who, yesterday, held a press conference—up in San Francisco—to declare that her father was the
Zodiac Killer? It’s probably BS, but you can read all about it
here.
DAVIES. The OC Reg’s
Science Dude (
Paul Davies) reports that
Paul Davies, a theoretical physicist widely known for helping explain the origins of the universe and for his eloquence in discussing the nature of science and religion to the public, will give the undergraduate commencement address at Chapman University in Orange on May 23.
SWINE 2.
Inside Higher Ed reports this morning on cases of swine flu at college campuses, including a suspected case at San Diego State University.
Have a nice day. Try not to run amok.
I do believe that this work was done under the direction of art instructor Julie Kirk, an internationally recognized street painter and professional artist. 
I overheard someone talking about "chalk art" this afternoon, and so, at about 7:00, after hanging out with friends over at Waters, I dropped by IVC to find it. Someone was still working there. I left them alone.
